Smoke shop owner accused of making, selling synthetic pot

BATON ROUGE - Sheriff's deputies in East Baton Rouge Parish arrested the owner of a Florida Boulevard smoke shop accused of running a synthetic marijuana lab in the back of the store and selling the created product to customers.

49-year-old Chad Schaffer, owner of Paradise Smoke Shop located at 9789 Florida Blvd, Suite A, was arrested on Sunday and charged with creation and operation of a drug lab along with distribution and manufacture of Schedule I drugs.

According to deputies, an unidentified woman working behind the counter at the shop sold a single pack of synthetic marijuana, sold as "Black Magic", to an undercover agent back in October of 2014. The pack of synthetic marijuana was submitted to the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab where the material tested positive as a controlled, dangerous substance that was on the list of banned drugs in the state..

Deputies followed up by executing a search warrant on Oct. 9 at the store where they found and seized at total amount of 255.6 grams of synthetic pot.

Agents found several boxes in the back of the shop containing a large quantity of empty synthetic marijuana packets and large, empty containers that contained synthetic marijuana residue, according to the report.

The owner was not at the store when deputies searched it, but he told investigators later by phone that he "could not believe this was happening again" after he claimed his lawyer "had that stuff tested at a lab". Schaffer told investigators he was out of town at the time and wouldn't be returning for a while.

The arrest report does not make it clear whether Schaffer turned himself in or whether he was picked up by law enforcement Sunday.